Just My Anger !!!

इस मातम-ऐ-दुनिया में अमन-ऐ-जहाँ भी नहीं, अमन-ऐ-दिल भी नहीं |

अमन के कातिलों से कह दो उनका यह जहां भी नहीं, वो जहाँ भी नहीं ||

मजहबी नहीं काफिर ही सहीं मैं,

यह जो हैं वो तो इंसान भी नहीं, हैवान भी नहीं ||

Where is your home ?

Home not necessarily needs to be a place or location, it can be a person, idea or anything for that matter.It is that to what one would like to go back to.

It is this constant awareness at the back of your mind,that we need to go back to it, constitutes the idea of home.

So here is a question for all of you, seemingly the simplest yet one of the most profound.(as Richard Bach pointed out in "Illusion")

"Where is your home ?"

Stay Beautiful,
Amitabh

Life in Short !!!

That's a piece I wrote sometime back as part of my application for a PG admission process.(Believe it or not :P ).

Enjoy Madi :)

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Adieu Amitabh (A eulogy)

Born on the 18^th Nov, named after a living legend, Son of a homemaker & a teacher, Amitabh was an exciting prospect. He was good at studies, followed Cricket and Bollywood religiously (Name does have its effects, doesn’t it?).He duly pursued Engineering where he discovered Public Speaking, Table tennis, English literature, SPIC MACAY, guitar and not to mention his major Information Technology too.

A two year stint with TCS took him from Trivandrum to Cochin, Cochin to Bangalore and finally to Gurgaon. He made some interesting friends & despite all his dislike for food cooked in Coconut Oil, he swore by the Fried Fish till the very end. He liked to claim that he had found enough stories from Cochin and Bangalore for his Grandkids to last 20 years.

His love for printed words was a legacy of his father who was a librarian himself. Starting with Champak, Nandan, ChandaMama, Paraag, not to mention a fanatic following of Cricket Samraat he then moved on to read English Literature, reading classics, fiction-nonfiction with equal gusto. In particular he was fond of Indian Authors Vikram Seth & Arundhati Roy being his favourites.

He was confident, contemplative and had a sense of humour. He was afraid of stagnation, disliked hypocrisy (mostly his) and liked people. An atheist, he respected other’s belief but hated Religious fundamentalists.

Once when asked if he had any regrets…he said “I have many…but I won’t mind living to have some more”. We couldn’t agree more. Good Bye ‘O’ Beloved Friend. May you start again from where you left.

Love Ya XL !!!

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This is story of an ordinary college boy. His story is as common as can be till something happens. During the very first few days ...Like you see a girl .. beautiful, smart and so intelligent that everyone seems to be eating out of her hands. You being the ordinary guy .. look at her in once in a while and try to console yourself by concentrating on some other stuff. The time goes by .. she is too good, you don't stand a chance and you remain the invisible guy that you are .. at least to her.

You are so much enamored that .. You feel scruffy when she is around... you feel tongue tied even when you know that you are not going to talk to her and she not to you. You live your life in the self-denial mode and keep it a secret even from your best friend.. Since he might find it funny and you really would not like it. You try talking yourself out of it .. it doesn't work. You try focusing your attention on something which supposedly is more important (study, career and all that crap they talk about), even that doesn't work.

Then as it happens with almost everything in life ... somehow your heart beats a little less faster when you see her. You try to follow the rule of "avoidance leads to forgetfulness". You succeed partially... life seems a little better now ... at least on the surface.

Then out of nowhere.. After 2 years in the college ... on a fateful day, something happens. You are coming back from your college and since you are thinking about the India-Pakistan match that India lost yesterday.. You don't notice her approaching you from the side. Suddenly she is standing in front of you and she asks. "Hi Amit, How are you?" (Let’s assume that’s your name).

You are dumbstruck. Caught between the feeling of shock and euphoria (She KNOWS my name !!!), you mumble something ..which obviously isn't audible enough but essentially meaning that you are good and something like that.

She understands and nods appreciatively.(Why ? ..you wonder ).Then she asks ... a little awkward herself, "Do you like coffee ? "

You being the klutz you are, reply , "Yeah .. kinda.." Looking everywhere but towards her.

"Oh..good", and then there is silence -- the odd kind where nobody would speak for a while and hope that the other would somehow rescue you two from this misery.. ..the sweet misery of those early days.

"Uh... would you mind, If I walk with you for a while", says the sweet one ... the one you waited for all along, the one who descended from heaven and landed right to your heart. Is this really happening, you ask yourself and pinch hard... yeah it is !!! .. And it's not another one of you dreams you have once in a while.

Your mind runs fast, very fast ... thinking things which are unimaginable.. looking for reasons for this sudden stroke of luck .. and finally believing in GOD.

Snapped back to real world and senses, you say " I don't mind" then regret immediately and add quickly " I mean .. sure! I would love to" and sigh with relief... just hoping that she won't change her mind.

And then you start walking .. together.. for a short walk now ... and then towards the future ... where there is bliss and there is heaven... though they might doubt it ...but you do live happily ever after.

Why I wrote this all ... just to tell you what XL means to me. When I started preparing for B-School entrance exams ... XLRI Jamshedpur was such a big name for me .. that I even didn't dare to dream about XLRI Jamshedpur, with my own deficiency in Maths and XAT's reputation for Whacko Quant section. I wrote XAT like a Zombie and the only good thing I remember doing is not attempting a single questions I was not sure of. To my utter surprise and delight, I got a GD/PI call from XLRI and the rest is as they say History.

XLRI PMIR to me is like that girl I mentioned above, so wonderful that I was afraid to admit my love for her even to myself. XLRI PMIR was my dream course and I am while writing this from XL, LIVING MY DREAM.

I am in Love and I don't care who knows it :D.

XL meri jaan .. love ya !!!

First Impressions !!!

Human mind has a tendency (or rather desire) to simplify things. A first meeting with every person will result in a first impression. Few words which will define the person and make it easy for us to put it somewhere with others, who supposedly are of the same kind. It is always easy to put people in categorical boxes .. some people might say it is demeaning and some might find it an insult to their individuality but the truth is that is how it works ... for you and for me. We categorize people. Period.


In normal situation, we can afford not to form a concrete image of the person based on first impression.With enough time and conversation we start to understand
the person.In fact, if enough time is given, it would be really difficult to find a bad person.To put it in simple words," Every person is nice, when you finally know them".

Nevertheless, this luxury of time is absent in a business scenario where we have limited time and interaction.We need to gauge the other person as quickly as possible to gain an advantage.The rules of body language and reading faces;are probably meant for such situations.These rules provides us a handy way to form a reasonably true first impression of the person.This information can be used(if inferred correctly) for making our decision making process easier.

The caveat with such rules is that they need sufficient expertise and experience before one can apply then effectively.And also one should not feel tempted to use these rules in personal life as they might hinder the way we see people, the way they need to be seen.Without a bias.Period.

The Smart Kids

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As most of the people who read it, I found both of Chetan Bhagat's books (Five Point Someone & One Night@Call Center) very interesting. But then these books are not just any interesting books. These are trend setters. Chetan Bhagat started an interesting trend of similar books. Everyone who was someone(read IITian,IIMian and XYZian) wanted to become a bestselling author and some of them actually did(e.g. Harshdeep Jolly of 'Everything you Desire").Even if they didn't, at least the cover page of their books says so, and I being a firm believer of sanctity of printed words..Believe it.

Now consider some similarities between these budding 'authors'.

They all are bright people, they are market savvy and they all know what to write and for whom to write. They have turned writing into a business plan, and a sound one at that. After all, Kotler was taught for a reason :).

Here is the list of a sample questionnaire cum checklist they all ensure to complete while writing their book.(talk about being methodical :))

Q1.Will I get a publisher?

Ans: Hell yeah!!!, there are enough Rupa Publications in market waiting for another college memoir and did I told you my IIx degree works like a magic wand ?

Q2.Who will read my book?

Ans: Apart from thousands of desperate students hoping to get into these hallowed portals, some of my college mates and few odd alumni ...phew!!! That makes it quite a sizeable customer base :)

Q3: What will I write about ?

Ans: I just finished 'Five Point Someone', So I guess I HAVE to include all the juicy details about campus life. I need to ensure my protagonist is not the very intelligent types(who like 9 graders neways :)).Don't forget to include account of male desperation and female bitchiness(Irrespective of what gender I am and how much I know about it).

And...yes, pay heed to the mushy love story amidst all the chaos I'll create, the more details better it is.I mean there HAS to be a LOVE STORY, all the Eric Segals of the world step aside , lemme show ya !!

And just like that, I have a book and Yes, I am an AUTHOR now. Even a process oriented software company will have to try hard to beat the dead on execution of these plans.

And then there are usual questions of what to wear for the photo on the book cover but then "authors" don't bother about such trivialities.(and let a image consultant do it for them ;-))

Chetan Bhagat(and all the 'inspired authors') belongs to the market savvy new breed of Indian Authors who understands economics better than human emotions. Both of his books filled the void in the Indian Book Market where Mills & Boons and usual Chic-Lit (Opel Mehta type books) is still trying hard to find their grip. He actually started a trend and what we see now is a flurry of books where the author's educational qualification matters more than the quality of what he writes. I have read some really bad books recently owing to this trend. I am sure there are many other authors who deserved to be published and read but they are left in a lurch since they don’t have flashy tag behind them.

Here are some areas of concern with these books: (Great minds think bulletwise…so do I :))

• Most of characters are caricatures, with hardly any details and effort visible from the Author.
• Juvenile stunts (at times exaggerated) remains the highlights of the book.
• Love stories are there for the same reason a Bollywood movie has songs.
• No one sincerely tries to tell a story, it HAS to be a light-hearted banter all the time ….why? Because it sells. Period.

Now before you all jump at me and blame me for being too harsh, let me tell you that I completely understand the hard work involved in writing any book. It requires a certain talent to be able to do so and I do not deny it. All those who have finished a book and got it published are achievers in every sense of the world. But I find the shallowness with which a story is told, quite discomforting. The oversimplification of issues and characters is too evident to ignore. It is not difficult to understand why a Vikram Seth, Rohinton Mistry and Arundhati Roy will belong to a different league and why some “mortals”(If I may say so) will remain mortals. Talent cannot be an excuse for mediocrity. The great authors became great authors because they were passionate about what they wrote; so you will have a Vikram Seth rewriting the whole ”The Golden Gate” and Rohinton Mistry leaving his job to turn a full time writer. These were not great milestones of a sound business plan but then writing is no business either. Writing is their métier and the fact that they are able to write what they truly want is enough for them. Money is just a happy co-incidence and the sooner our young ‘Authors’ understand it the better it will be for us readers.

Smart kids as they all are, I am sure they will understand it soon. J

PS: Rupa Publication has been there in low cost publication for quite a while now and has millions of thankful readers across the nation for making reading affordable. Cheers !!!

Philosophy-101

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This is first in the series of the articles I am planning to write about Philosophy. I have read this fascinating book "Sophie's World" by Jostein Gaarder which is a beautiful compendium of all the important philosophical thoughts.

And I have all the intentions of borrowing heavily from this book :)

Here I go:

What is Philosophy ?

Going by the etymological analysis Philosophy literally means "Love of Wisdom". I would go ahead and daresay that philosophy is the celebration of Mankind's ability to wonder and to ask questions. The basic philosophical questions we have been asking and wondering since time immemorial are:

How was the world created? Is there any reason or meaning behind what happens? How ought we to live?

And the most important (I believe) of them “Who we are & why we are here?"

It is difficult to find a culture which hasn’t dwelt on these questions in one form or the other. Here is an extract from the book:

"A Greek philosopher who lived more than two thousand years ago believed that philosophy had its origin in man’s sense of wonder. Man thought it was so astonishing to be alive that philosophical questions arose of their own accord."

In fact, according to the author (and I agree) THE ONLY THING WE REQUIRE TO BE GOOD PHILOSOPHER IS THE FACULTY OF WONDER.

Have you ever seen a magician pulling a rabbit out of a hat? It never fails to amaze us. Now try to put yourself in the place of the rabbit. The only difference being that you would be aware of being a part of something magical and rabbit won't. A philosopher knows that this world and this life is actually a magic trick and we are the rabbit in this trick (Some even say that we are actually little insects buried in Rabbit's fur).

Most of us find comfort deep in the Rabbit's fur and few of us (the philosophers) try to get to the tip of the fur to see the magician in the eye.

Enough of rabbit talk, summarizing:

The very sense of wonder and the quenching thirst of answers for some basic questions maketh a man 'the philosopher'.

Many a men had already asked these questions and tried to answer them...some even asked new ones ....we will talk about them later :)

Stay Beautiful :)

Amitabh